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We believe that online reproduction of this material is permitted because its copyright protection has lapsed or because sharing it here for non-profit educational purposes complies with the Fair Use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Law. Teachers and students are generally free to reproduce pages for nonprofit classroom use. For advice about other uses, or if you believe that you possess copyright to some of this material, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org.

Electronic Publication Date

2008

Digital Identifier

TP494000

Description

In this long letter to the Milwaukee Journal, John Deitz responds to a late-August 1906 letter by Mississippi River Logging Company official T.J. Connor (given here). For background on the Cameron Dam controversy that prompted the exchange, see the Deitz entry in the Dictionary of Wisconsin History.

Deitz opens with a lengthy transcript of the deed that he claims gave him legal right to control the Cameron Dam. At the top of page 4, he explains why he believes that even his adversaries knew he legally owned the dam, then provides several pages of quotes from their correspondence with him. At the bottom of page 8 he resumes his argument by providing further evidence of their dealings with him. In between the quotations from documents, Deitz reveals the rhetorical skills and colorful personality that helped him become a national celebrity, the archetypical "common man" supposedly taking on the Goliath of the Weyerhauser syndicate. Four years later the conflict erupted into violence, a deputy was killed, Deitz was convicted of murder, and the lumber company took over the Cameron Dam.

We believe that online reproduction of this material is permitted because its copyright protection has lapsed or because sharing it here for non-profit educational purposes complies with the Fair Use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Law. Teachers and students are generally free to reproduce pages for nonprofit classroom use. For advice about other uses, or if you believe that you possess copyright to some of this material, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org.